A reminder of recovery’s capriciousness.

LA Review of Books

A reminder of recovery’s capriciousness.

These essays recount desperate tales of trauma, misdiagnosis, and mistreatment, usually followed by a single clarifying event — often outside the bounds of traditional treatment — that sparks a mysterious and prescient turn. This is the nature of the beast: wherein a life’s journey is made or unmade daily, capitulated and recapitulated moment to moment, earned and not bestowed. Relapse and setbacks can be monumental events, but they can also occur in the time it takes to make a cup of coffee, answer the phone, or glimpse your reflection in the mirror. The essays in this collection are not a road map to recovery, but a reminder of recovery’s capriciousness.